June 13, 2013
A photobook capturing memories of the South Burnett floods – and the recovery – has arrived back from the printers just in time for its official launch on June 22.
The book, “Reflections”, has been prepared by Nanango author Liz Caffery and features hundreds of photographs taken throughout the length and breadth of the South Burnett.
The project was initiated by Brisbane Valley Heritage Trails and members gathered in Nanango last week to inspect copies of the book hot off the presses.
Everyone seemed very impressed!
The tragedy of the Lockyer Valley and the Brisbane floods has tended to push the South Burnett experience into the background, something that this project hopes to rectify.
“This project has enabled the South Burnett’s flood history to be recorded and respected,” Liz said.
Liz said the original aim of the project was to construct a photobook which would present a comprehensive collection of images and stories about the 2011 floods in the South Burnett. Then the 2013 floods occurred, and they had to be included, too.
All the images and stories have been provided by local people.
Brisbane Valley Heritage Trails applied for funding from the South Burnett Regional Council – which had received $250,000 from the State Government for projects that would support the community’s “human and social recovery”. They received $10,421, basically covering the cost of printing.
Liz said she had been introduced to the photobook medium a few years ago as a way of recording and presenting historical photos.
They are printed on special art paper and each book is hand-bound.
“I particularly love the creativity, complexity and beauty of this craft. In the end these books become ‘works of art’ as well as a precious and permanent record of our local heritage,” she said.
Liz had previously created two photobooks for the South Burnett Regional Council to accompany local history images displayed in the South Burnett Energy Centre in Nanango. These books focused on “Farming” and “Timber”. A third book in the series, “Transport”, is currently under construction.
This is the second book she has completed for Brisbane Valley Heritage Trails; the first, commissioned in 2011 is about the timber trails of the Brisbane Valley.
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Copies of “Reflections” will be placed in 20 locations throughout the South Burnett so that residents can enjoy it, and the plan is for a link to an online version to be also placed on the South Burnett Regional Council’s website.
A CD of 150 of the key images collected will also be provided to South Burnett schools for educational purposes.
Individual books can also be ordered as family heirlooms but these will be special “one-off” orders.
- “Reflections” will be placed at: Bjelke-Petersen Dam, Blackbutt Library, Boondooma Homestead, “Cedarvale” at the Bunya Mountains, Cherbourg Council Office, Kingaroy Library, Kingaroy Visitor Information Centre, Kumbia Heritage Museum, Lake Boondooma, Maidenwell Hall/Library, Moore Hall, Murgon Library, Murgon Visitor Information Centre, Nanango Library, Nanango Visitor Information Centre, Proston Library, South Burnett Regional Council office in Kingaroy, Wondai Heritage Museum, Wondai Library, and Yarraman Heritage House
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We’ll let Liz Caffery tell you a little but more about the project in her own words. From the prologue of the photobook…
Reflections
In reflecting on my experience of floods, I remember when I was a child, I thought floods were exciting. I lived on a dairy farm near Wondai where Dingo Creek occasionally spilled its banks. During the wet years of the 1950s, we gleefully splashed in shallow streams with water up to our knees. Those rare waters brought fresh, green grass and sweet, contented cows.
It wasn’t till I came to live on the Barkers Creek flats at Nanango over 40 years ago that I witnessed a “real” flood. I will not easily forget 1974 when dairy heifers were swept away, fences were strewn with litter and cultivation paddocks were scoured. I have seen many floods roar down Barkers Creek since then, but the biggest of them all occurred on January 11, 2011.
When I was approached late in 2012 to construct this photobook of the South Burnett 2011 floods and the recovery, I accepted willingly. I believed I knew about floods and the project would be straightforward. I soon realised the enormity of the task. The book was to encompass the entire region and it was to depict diverse aspects of the flood and the ways in which people recovered from it. What’s more, everyone had a flood story. Where would I start?
For a while, I was quite overwhelmed until I developed a structure which focused on the lives of everyday people from a variety of walks of life. From this, emerged the chapters for the book. I got underway, talking to people, hearing their stories, collecting photographs and writing up their words.
Then after a long spell of heat and dry, the rain started to pelt down. Unbelievably we were hit with a massive flood again, not once but three times. Although the emphasis of this book remains the 2011 flood, I felt compelled to acknowledge the 2013 events as well.
It was impossible to cover every dimension of the flood and to tell every story. Even so, I hope the book is comprehensive, featuring representative experiences from across the South Burnett. I also hope that, despite the heartache of floods, the book is uplifting and that it truly respects and honours people’s lives, in good times and bad. What touched me the most is the universal capacity of a resilient human spirit to regenerate and rebuild.”
